Pool Maintenance

We just got our pool installed the end of April. So far the water bill has only been $2-5/month more than last year's (minus the month where we had it filled). We add a little bit of water every week since it evaporates from the heat. And we do it while we're swimming so that it cools the pool down a little! Electric has stayed the same (we paid a little more for a better variable speed pump). Part of the reason though too is that we are very diligent about turning our A/C up when we are outside in the pool (and make sure the lights/tv are off too). After you come inside from swimming, you're really cooled off and don't need that much A/C. We have a salt pool and it's been a very minimal expense in regards to chemicals. Our insurance only went up $20 a year for coverage. It really only takes us 30 mins - 1 hr a week to brush the pool, check the chemicals and clean the filters. We do it all ourselves usually when the kids are swimming (and I brush the pool while I'm in the water). The pool is VERY MUCH worth it!! We're in it all of the time. I absolutely think it's a GREAT investment - especially if you have kids. Everyone wants to come over to our house which will really pay off when the kiddos are older so that I can keep an eye on what they're doing! HTH!

I'm an insurance agent in AZ. Your rates on your home ins will be higher if its a diving pool and if its not fenced. Otherwise you should be ok. We pay to have a pool service come every week (year round) to take care of it. Hubby and I sell insurance, we are not pool experts! So its worth it to us to pay $20 per week for someone to come out. We also have our pump run every night from 10pm to 4am so it is not during high peak usage. I will never have a house without pool! Its too hot here and we LIVE in it in the summer. Oh, and even tho our yard is fenced in, we paid $1800 to have the pool itself fenced in for extra safety for our kids (and its a rental house!). So take that cost into factor if you have kids. Good luck.

the cost for maintaining a pool will vary depending on the size and condition of the pool - our house came with an older (late '50s/early '60s) in ground pool and we've had constant algae battles b/c the water circulation (one skimmer and one return) is poor and we've had to deal with assorted "old age" problems like air leaks, water leaks, and, most recently, crack repair and replastering b/c the pool was losing a couple inches of water a week (it's about 17K gallons).
OTOH, a friend of mine has a 1980's era in ground pool of similar size and has never had algae issues even though they keep their chlorine level fairly low...BUT they do have a leak issue with an old solar water heating system.

I found the following site to have a lot of helpful info on pool care and maintenance http://www.troublefreepool.com/index.html

My DH takes care of the pool himself - he spends about 30 minutes a week on it, usually while our daughters are in it. So, we don't have any cost associated with regular cleanings.

The chemicals cost about $300/year - give or take. We usually get them at Costco.

When you buy the house, make sure the pool is part of the warranty - we have claimed our pump three times since we bought the house 6 years ago. Now - in the pump's defense, I think the people our warranty company use are USELESS to say the least, but they won't replace it until it completely stops working.

We are getting to the point where we have to think about refacing it, and we're looking at $13K or so (we have a gravel bottom pool, so it's a bit more expensive). OUCH.

Our water bills don't seem too bad, but it will definitely affect your electric bill and gas bill (if you have a heater). Honestly, once you get used to it, it's not horrible, but our electric bills are about $75-100 higher than other people I know.

Now - for the best part! We LOVE our pool and cannot imagine summers without it. We are in it both days of the weekend, and sometimes on week nights as well. We considered it worth the investment (except for the whole refacing thing. Again - ugh.).

We installed our pool in October. There was very little we needed to do to the pool during the winter months. The pump will run when the temp are belowing freezing so it did run for several days straight when we had the cold spell. I would say my water bill is maybe $5 more a month than it was last year. My electric bill has stayed about the same maybe a very slight increase of a few dollars. We have a salt water pool. Salt is super cheap and we have not had to add that much. We do add about 1/2 - 1 gallon of acid a week. Acid is about $5 a gallon. We have had to shock the pool twice (after heavy rain storm and heavy swimming) - a bag of shock is around $4. I agree with the maintainance of 30- 1hour a week to clean the pool and check on every thing. It is more time if you are cleaning the tile, filter and salt cholinator but those are done about every 3 months. My insurance did increase to cover outdoor structures - we added a patio, fence and pool so it was more like $80 increase a year. We also choose to add an umberella policy for extra liability coverage but that is not required. We really enjoy our pool and the time we spend in it as a family. I would say it is very worth it. As with anything you owe whether it be a boat, pool, camper, ATV, etc - there will be extra cost and time just to maintain them.

In-ground or above? Year-round or not?

I'm in New England so we open our pool in May and close in September. It's a 15 x 30 in-ground, 10 ft deep - appx 20,000 gallons. Opening the pool takes about $200 in chemicals, and ongoing maintenance is about $75 a month if there are no major problems. We then pay $250 to have it closed. We add very little water each year (not enough to affect our bill) and don't have a heater. Heaters use so much fuel you might as well burn dollar bills, but if you live where it's warm enough to have the pool open all year, heating it in the winter would offset the cost of opening and closing it each year. So including our opening and closing costs, each month averages us $150. Running the filter probably increases our electric bill but with A/C added into the mix we can't really figure out the pool cost and it's not a ridiculous amount, maybe $10- $20.

We pay a guy $100/month to maintain the pool. He does all the chemicals, he cleans the filter, he sets the timer for the filter/pool sweeper thing. All we really have to do is skim the top of the pool every day to get leaves off the surface. You won't use much water unless you have to drain and refill the pool for some reason. We just had our pool re-plastered, and so we had to drain it and refill it, and I am living in fear of the water bill. I think the pool has 30,000 gallons of water in it or something. Yikes. But if the plaster is okay in the pool, you won't need to worry about that. Just add water as needed to compensate for evaporation - which won't be all that much.

Can't help you out much - because it's been 20 years since I've had pool in my backyard..

call your insurance company and find out how much extra a pool will cost to insure the house..

call around to local pool companies and ask what their maintenance fees are and what it involves - chemicals, cleaning, etc... I know when we had our pool all those years ago - we paid them $100 a month and they came out twice a week and cleaned the pool and we had to do the chemicals daily.....just to make sure algae didn't happen...etc...

I would LOVE to have a pool in my back yard...I will say that the maintenance is a DAILY thing...but you can have someone do it for you!!

well i always had a pool growing up and as far as i know it doesnt cost too much to maintain it, you have to get chemicals every so often and they are reasonable and a new cover every couple years which depending on the size run around 200 chemicals run about 75 a month if that much, bug nets dont run a lot at all maybe 20 and they last a few years if taken care off a sweeper can run 100 but can last many many years if taken care of chlorene holders run 25 each but last 5+ years if taken care off pool floats can last a while if they are good qualty and taken care off the most expensive thing would be stairs which can run 200 and up and the sand filter which is 150+ and the motor which is 200+ but they last for 10 15 20 years as long as they are maintaned and taken care off but yearly i say ud spend around 200 -250 if that on new things and every 4 or 5 years add another 400 on to that depending on the size and how often its used and all of that

added (you also shouldnt have to add too much water at all, just top it off at the begining of the season each year and depending on how hot and how much it rains you may need to add some once or twice a month to top it off and keep everything flowing easy so the water bill wont change much